Turns out Johnny Didn't Hate Jazz

If you read the past two week’s posts, you read about these one-hit wonders who had this light rock hit song. Each band was British, but had bigger success in America. This week will be different. 

On first glance Johnny Hates Jazz was Breathe part 2. Turns out JHJ was made of talented musicians from musical backgrounds. They played in jazz bands, funk, rock, and soul groups. Clark Dutch came from a musical family. Kelvin Hayes’ father was a record producer. The band name may just be members being cheeky. They played in jazz bands!

 It turns out they are still big in Europe. I found their website, johnnyhatesjazz.com, and they are on tour right now. They have tour tee shirts, and videos and a long discography. To many in America, this was a one-hit wonder, but they have a long career. The Great Songs podcast https://worshipnerd.podbean.com did a show on them that went well over an hour. 

“Shattered Dreams” was the tail end of the 1980s synth-pop sound. That's why I originally thought they were Breathe Part 2, another band at the tail end of the 1980s. The song starts in D minor key, a sad sounding key, but changes happen up to C for seconds and back to D. Yet this is not a mopey song.

From 1987 through 1988 the band has somewhat forgettable hits. "Shattered Dreams" lingers because it was one of the last big 1980s synth pop songs with drama in the lyrics. There’s three part harmony and range.

The band Urselle does a pretty updated but faithful cover. You can rework this song to metal, guitar, jazz or folk as I've heard others do.